Volunteer Resources in Hancock County - Moving Forward With A Solution
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Friday April 14th

TGIF and I mean that from every bone in my body. This week has been a blurr of work - the teams have worked very very hard and plowed through a mile of work orders, helped some extraordinary people, and made friends in life they would not have met in any other forum.

The new new satellite housing is working out so great! Thank you Ohio Disaster Relief! But, you left us the wrong key for the shower trailer. Hmmmm..... But, even that can be "fixed".

I had dinner at the Amish Camp last night with some of the members of our Canadian team. It was so great to see Dan and Ruth back - I left them with six Elkview houses to build for me plus one other custom home for someone in Middletown. That will keep them busy until they leave. The Elkview they are working on now is coming along although we did not spend much time on it this week Link to Elkview Project.

One of the Canadian team wanted to work with the Amish today - so he is up in Pearlington on a framing crew. That should keep him out of trouble for a while. His Dad and another team member are up in Diamondhead helping a little old lady up there with some chores.

Tim has been cooking for the big team all week - awsome food! He is the best. This is working out so well for us.

Myself - I am so tired. The paperwork is killing us in the office. And the traffic and phone in the office this week has been hectic. Not sure why? But the pace is picking up to an even bigger pitch.

The Canadian team is working on the bearings on the trailer. And we are supposed to be getting in a large 5th wheel trailer today that has been donated. That will be interesting.

The sheetrock pace has picked up and we have been offered 200 semi loads x 600 sheets x 1/2" x 12' for $3.75 per sheet. We are going to jump on that offer and start hauling it in to the new warehouse in Ocean Springs. Doc has been ill this week so we plan to start moving it in there next week as soon as the fork lifts are over there to unload.

All-in-All this has been a fantastic week. Fantiastic crews and awsome customers to work with - what a combination.

We desperately need skilled volunteers - carpenters, electricians and plumbers are at the top of the list.

How was your week?

Wednesday,April 11th 2007

Yes, tis raining. Makes it tough on the volunteer work roster as no one truly wants to dance in the rain - despite the age old song to that effect. Worse yet, around here, it turns to mudsville and you can’t "walk" in those sodden lots let alone get any work done. So, its inside we go to do the painting, sheetrock, and any gutting that will not require getting the material to the edge of the property. Those types of jobs are not as prevalent as one would think - mostly because those are the types of jobs the home owner here, when agile enough, can do for themselves. It is also the type of work we encourage the homeowner to do as it helps them "bond" with their "new" home. Strange as it may seem - many whose homes have been devastated by the destruction of Katrina become further alienated when the volunteer groups come in and "do it all".

The crew from Canada found the 5/8" paperless fiberglass reinforced rock to be beyond "heavy" but if an atom bomb ever goes off around that project they claim the sheetrock will still be standing. *G*

Our crew from Fredericksburg, Virginia are here and our first crew staying in the Old Spanish Trail satellite site. We had it all spic and span and even planted a couple of palms in the front.

Christian Life Church had a crew over to do one of our gutting jobs today - they made great progress and feel they may be done by the end of tomorrow. It was a particularly tough gut job and we have been working on it the last couple of weeks. This last run at this job should complete this portion of the work and house restoration is the next step.

I received notice today, in the mail, that I had been nominated for an award - very interesting. Sort of caught me off guard - I was sort of getting used to the mud slinging around here. *G* Hmmmm, ya just gotta love southern politics. Now the issue is coming up with a dress, shoes and nylons - not sure showing up for this event in jeans and tee shirt is protocol. Sigh.

This brings to mind an incident that happened when I first came down to Waveland and I was volunteering for a Baptist Church (I was the lone Catholic on site). The church members were constantly talking about each other when the target member was not present. And it was extremely vicious. Didn’t matter who they were talking about - it was just the person who was not present at the table at the time. The biggest culprit was the Preacher. So, one day, while sitting at the table for breakfast, they started in on one of the member volunteers who were not present yet. So I wandered off and got a bible and came back and flopped it on the table. I asked them where, in the bible, Jesus viciously gossiped about people when they were not present. The Preacher, with wide eyed innocence, looked up and me justifies their actions and says "But, all southern Baptists are like this - this is just the way we are down here". And he went on the say "Jesus talked about the Pharisees". I told him "Yes He did - but he looked them right in the eye and told them to their face what he thought of their actions". The Preacher got up and stormed out of the tent. He started sitting at different tables every morning and never again, in my presence, went down that path the local volunteer members. It took months for the preacher to actually get over that incident - in the meantime I left that church and moved on to a kinder and gentler church environment. I do now work with that Preacher from time to time - I often wonder if he truly examined his actions and changed? He was right on one aspect though – it is a prevalent problem down here. Not sure why? And not sure why those participating can not “see” the problem with malicious gossip? Gossip has a habit of coming back to bite the hand that feeds it - it is a cycle.

We are off to get another Elkview permit tomorrow and, hopefully, we should get the permit for the Church on Herlihy this week - we have to get the foundation plan done prior to that.

Else all is well here. I am in desperate need of office help - the paperwork is drowning me.

How is your week going?

Sunday, April 8th, 2007

Its gonna be a three dog night tonight and I am one dog short. I will have to substitue a cat - although the Canadian team have taken a shine to Tinker and so I bet that is where he is right now.

The fire place is going. I was not the boy scout thought despite the pic - it was Ken. He and Richard carried in the wood last night after Pat and I raided the Wayland to Waveland trash pile and brought in some starter sticks in the form of short 2x4's. Thankyou Wayland!

Today was Easter and church this morning. And this afternoon I had dinner with a neat family from Ocean Springs. He is a physician and she works for a CPA - something we are in dire need of right now and so that problem maybe resolved. They had been following the news and the website apparantly - and wanted to meet me. And so it was, and what a fabulous meal and fabulous conversation. And it was pleasant to get out of Dodge for a day. Although I have to admit to sleeping most of the way home. Not much company for the driver but great for me. The best of two worlds - food and a great nap. *G*

Ken, Pat and Rich went to dinner ala Mexican tonight - treated by the church that left the funds for the "long termers" to treat themselves. So they treated themselves to dinner.

We have a crew in from Canada - they flew in tonight. And we have a large crew coming in Tuesday - and the satelite site is almost set up for them. We have some work to do tomorrow. We are thinking of putting up a fence. We have the material and it sure would help with security.

Going to be a busy week. We hope to start on the church and we have several houses up on Pylons right now - with a construction crew headed this way. We sure could use more skilled labor - we have so many houses to build from scratch.

Thats it for tonight. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.

So how was your Easter?

Saturday, April 7th, 2007

So much for those trees the Conservation Corp planted at Martin Luther King Park - Waveland Public Works mowed and those red flags were a great target! So much for Plan A! Next time it will be red flags and a 2x4 stake in the ground. Sigh........

So, we will plant them again.

Else it was a great week. We got the ditch dug to drain the "pond" in the Park and we should be able to disk up the park early next week. The Park is looking good and the kids are taking good care of it. We have a long way to go - but we are making great progress.

The teams this week were absolutely awsome - we made make strides towards many homes and there are pilings for "new" homes here there and everywhere. And we have about 197 more this summer. We need skilled construction workers !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We picked up the rest of the cots for the satelite site on Spanish Trail and we should have that site ready to go on Saturday. The first booking is coming in next week. And they are very thankful as prior they were told by another DRO that there was no volunteer housing available in Hancock County and they were booked into a hotel at great expense. There is housing available for volunteers in Hancock County - you just have to get to the right people.

The semi load of sheetrock is already promised out to several homes including Wayland to Waveland for a home on Waveland Ave. Monday we are supposed to be getting a semi load of siding with more loads of construction materials on the way according to the trucking source supplying these loads.

One of our full time volunteers got a welcome from Wayland's finest - the police. He had gone to check on a tape and texture job and got into the home, per instructions, by unscrewing the lock on the door. He was wandering around the house checking out the very bad tape and texture job he had been asked to correct and he heard a noise. He came around the corner to drawn two drawn fire arms and two police officers wanting to know what he was doing there. The neighbor had called and reported someone breaking in. Ken produced his Work Order and all was well. Phew - it's getting like the Wild West in these here parts.

I tell you what - I am beyond tired. I am exhausted. Its 3am and I am up as this is the only time our satellite has "any speed" or any effectiveness. My office is just mounds and mounds of paperwork. The paperwork is killing all of us. Supplying money for materials is one thing - what the government and FEMA has failed to recognize is that all those rules and regulations require "someone" to fill in those mountains of forms and provide miles and miles of documentation. We need Case Managers in the worst way - and not one of those grants allowed for manpower to build the homes or Case Managers and lets not forget those "office expenses". Have you bought an ink cartridge lately?

Which reminds me - I received the greatest package this week. It was packed full of ink cartridges, a flash drive, and a couple of long distance calling cards. What a great gift. And no note included as to who the donor was. THANK YOU - you are awsome. . You have no idea how important that gift was to this operation.

Ohio Disaster relief left a $1,000.00 grant for a very deserving client this week and one of my field volunteers got a chance to deliver that life saving donation out to them this week. This older couple were in absolute dire straights and this will allow them to just have the basics the next couple of weeks until their new jobs produce a paycheck. It is so sad to see people, in their 70's, having to go back to work just to "save their home" from mortgage payment issues. Their home was wiped out by the storm and their savings was eaten up trying to rebuild while they fight the insurance company and wait for Phase II grants from the MDA. And worse yet - we had to step in even to get them a job as their myriad of applicatons all over the county did not produce one result. Thank you Silver Slipper for stepping in and giving this couple a chance!

Tinker is back from the vet a new man. Not happy, but we are on zero poplulation mode here. Miss Katrina is going in next week - she has found many new "friends" since we moved here. Getting to be quite a social butterfly. Going to nip that in the bud too. *G* She did find one "foe" this week - and kicked up quite a stink until we went out to see what the issue was. This intruder had made it all the way to our driveway. The "intruder" was almost as big as she was. The picture is a little fuzzy - but it tells the story.

Its Easter weekend. I have an invitation to dinner in Ocean Springs by someone I have never met who has been watching the "news" and this site and has become a supporter of this effort. Apparantly we have a mutual friend and he is picking me up to take me to Easter Dinner over at their home. This will be fun. And here is my "spring" picture for today taken out on the Harrison St site on the Bay.

I hope you all plan on a great Easter weekend. And, how was your week?

Monday April 2nd, 2007

Tom, Gerry and Busy B - birds of the same feather on Tuesday night!

Its been another great day. Getting ready to open up the camp that Ohio Disaster Relief kindly has asked us to take care of this summer until they get back in the fall - 714 Spanish Trail. And we have it booked pretty well for the entire summer. This is going to be a great boost to the services we can offer - we desperately need the volunteer space. While we can already house 40 at the main house - this will double our capacity. Thank you Ohio Disaster Relief and Santo Saucier - you are the best!!!!!!!

We had a customer pass away today. We had worked there all last week and he was so thrilled. He followed the electrician/plumber all day just wanting to be part of it all. He passed peacefully in his sleep this morning. Tough, very tough. This is just so hard on the oldeer residents.

My team was up at Kiln today out in the wilds - and now they say they are siding experts. *G* There is so much work to be done up in that area and no volunteers in sight.

Major fight with the computer today - the modem died for some reason. But a shining knight came to the rescue and we are back up and running.

Another Work Permit came into the office today for a St. Albans and another client with orders for another Elkview. We are rocking here.

Had three more groups book in today - April, June and December. We are on a roll. We need more skilled volunteers desperately.

One of the groups coming in working with us last summer - in fact they worked on Carol Ray's house and came back to work with me again. Carol Rays was the worst gut out I have ever had to do. It took six teams of workers and five months. But now the house is finished and she is working on the garden. Thats the success stories I like to see. The group originally was booked into a hotel as they could not find volunteer housing in Hancock County. If anyone else has trouble finding housing - give me a call. There is plenty of housing here - ya just gotta know who to call!

So thats our Wednesday - how was yours?

Monday April 2nd, 2007

Yes it was Monday today and the traffic in the office started as early as the phone - and it went a thousand miles an hour all day long. It ended with me walking down Waveland Ave following a semi loaded with 664 sheets of of 12' x 5/8" sheetrock - and we could not get the semi down to the warehouse near the tracks we needed to use. Besides, the forklift was not there anyway and we will just wait till morning and unload it then. Talk about a hectic day.

But we will have sheetrock for a while. *G*

And the donations keep rolling in - and we need them. And as the donations roll in so do the volunteers. We have three groups who came in today - including an electrician plumber that we so desperately need here.

Else, it was just Monday. We could sure use more skilled volunteers - so if your thinking about it. We need you now!

A couple of more house starts rolled into the office today - on top of everything else. We will get to them tomorrow and Wednesday.

Most of all - I am exhausted. Not enough hours in the day, not enough volunteers to build all these house starts no matter how I look at it, not enough skilled labor, not enough hours in the day to solicit more. I cant complain with the 2-3 new house starts we are doing now per week. But I have 200 plus to build and all those clients want them now. There is just no way. Someone is going to be first, and someone is going to be last.

I am just plumb tired.

And that was my Monday. How was yours?


Sunday April 1st., 2007

A blustery sort of wet Sunday. A good day to do "nothing" and thats about what I have accomplished today excepting a continual raid on the kitchen - not sure why I am so hungry today.

As for doing nothing - not quite true. I have the four young children of a local citizen here and I sent them out to lunch so they could have some time to themselves. Even gave them my Tripani coupon someone gave me. It was for "two". Not a chance that anytime soon there will be "two" of us going to dinner - I barely have time to graze in the kitchen here. So - I sent the coupon off to do some good. And so here I sit with a four month old on my lap and I am tip tapping across the keys while he watches.

As soon as "day care" is over - I think Pat and I will bike to the beach. Sounds like a great way to spend a blustery Sunday afternoon. Besides the person with the book on our paint mixing device is on the way and we can stop and get our book.

I see Longo back in the paper again displacing blame for his issues. The best part of that article is the quote of the day from Mayor Longo: "He said the volunteers are here to help the citizens and not to be an extension of city hall". Yes, I agree! *G*

Well, Pat just came in with a very wet Katrina - she gave the poor thing a bath. A much needed bath I might add. Pat looked at Max but decided that might be a bit of a handful considering the stories she has heard about Max and his baths - actually he cries through the whole thing. Its a riot to watch.

Pete took off today for home after a very industrious busy two week stint working on electrical and plumbing. Thankyou Pete! I got up at 6.30am to see him pull his trailer out of the drive. It is hard to see these people, who have become your friends, leave.

And Ken is out in the shop experimenting with the new hopper for sheet rock texture. He and Rich have been playing with it for a couple of hours. I think they are out hiding from all the children in the house. *G*

We have volunteers coming in tomorrow - its going to be a very busy week.

So, how is your Sunday going?



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